introduction of more than a
creed. The religious leader in his own country can trust to his
eloquence and power over his hearers. The real support of the
missionary, however little he may like the idea, is usually that he
represents a superior type of civilization. At one time in their
career Buddhism and Christianity were the greatest agencies for
spreading civilization in Asia and Europe respectively. They brought
with them art and literature: they had the encouragement of the most
enlightened princes: those who did not accept them in many cases
remained obviously on a lower level. Much the same thing happens in
Africa to-day. The natives who accept Mohammedanism or Christianity
are moved, not by the arguments of the Koran or Bible, but by the idea
that it is a fine thing to be like an Arab or a European. A pagan in
Uganda is literally a pagan; an uninstructed rustic from a distant
village.

Now if we consider the relations of India with the west, we find on
neither side the conditions which usually render propaganda
successful. Before the Mohammedan invasions and the Portuguese
conquest of Goa, no faith can have presented itself to the Hindus with
anything like the prestige which marked the advent of Buddhism in
China and Japan. Alexander opened a road to India for Hellenic culture
and with it came some religious ideas, but the Greeks had no
missionary spirit and if there were any early Christian missions they
must have been on a small scale. The same is true of the west: if
Asoka's missions reached their destination, they failed to inspire any
record of their doings. Still there was traffic by land and sea. The
Hindus, if self-complacent, were not averse to new ideas, and before
the establishment of Christianity there was not much bigotry in the
west, for organized religion was unknown in Europe: practices might be
forbidden as immoral or anti-social but such expressions as contrary
to the Bible or Koran had no equivalent. Old worships were felt to be
unsatisfying: new ones were freely adopted: mysteries were
relished. There was no invasion, nothing that suggested foreign
conquest or alarmed national jealousy, but the way was open to ideas,
though they ran some risk of suffering transformation on their long
journey.

As I have repeatedly pointed out, Hinduism and Buddhism are
essentially religions of central and eastern, not of western Asia, but
they came in contact with the west in several regions and an enquiry